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<title>you know who it is you can count on by MeansToOffend (goodmorning)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28653792">you know who it is you can count on</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodmorning/pseuds/MeansToOffend'>MeansToOffend (goodmorning)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pick Me Up (Again) [17]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Men's Hockey RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>2014-2015 NHL Season, Anaheim Ducks, M/M, hampus and rickard didn't want to live with silfvy and this is why, such a minor callback to the other fic i'm not even going to link it, though this retcons most of that season anyway so why contextualize?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 14:08:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28653792</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodmorning/pseuds/MeansToOffend</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"In a complete coincidence, this is just a few days after Josh Manson plays his first NHL game. So maybe it’s natural that Jakob’s yearnings for a home would attach to him immediately."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Josh Manson/Jakob Silfverberg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pick Me Up (Again) [17]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1180688</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>you know who it is you can count on</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthernDaughter/gifts">NorthernDaughter</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Jakob is traded to Anaheim, the first thing he does is buy a house. It’s in a nice enough area, but nothing too fancy, just two stories in a middle-class neighborhood, where children play football in the cul-de-sacs and old ladies taking their dogs for walks have a smile and a greeting for everyone they pass. </p><p>He’d been getting tired of apartment living in Ottawa, anyway, the thin walls not conducive to his pre-game naps, the management company slow to make repairs, the slick veneer of fancy living through the impersonal hallways. Besides, he’s almost 23 now, and doesn’t know if he wants to be “one of the young guys” anymore; he’s tired of partying every single night, and he doesn’t feel the need to pick up the way some of them seem to.</p><p>Anaheim does seem a little more mature in the room, though, with plenty of veteran presence, and two of the young guys are Swedish, like him, and more inclined to go out together than to ask anyone else along with them. Jakob isn’t sure if he’s supposed to read into their co-dependence, but whatever they are to each other doesn’t matter to him. He likes them well enough either way.</p><p>Of course, because it’s not a very hard-partying team, Jakob ends up home alone more nights than not - and he’s fine with that, he really is. </p><p>Except a little over a year into his time with the Ducks, barely a month into a shiny new season, Jakob is hit with a wave of loneliness and a realization that home isn’t only a place but people to share it with.</p><p>In a complete coincidence, this is just a few days after Josh Manson plays his first NHL game. So maybe it’s natural that Jakob’s yearnings for a home would attach to him immediately.</p><p>Or maybe it’s his calming attitude, his skill on defense, his willingness to step up for his teammates, his adorable smile…</p><p>Or, uh, not that last one. Probably. Definitely.</p><p>Jakob is careful to act normally around Manse, though he does invite him to sit with Hampus and Rickard on the plane for completely non-selfish reasons - poker is much better with more people, and with four they can switch up and play hearts or spades if they get bored on a longer flight. It has nothing at all to do with his courage, his childhood stories, or the way he’s been filling out his frame with attention from the training staff so that now he’s tall and broad and so very warm.</p><p>Returning home at the end of a road trip is supposed to be a relief, no matter what the results might have been, but Jakob just feels more and more depressed to open his door and find nothing but a dark and empty house. It’s exactly this feeling that has him leaning into madness and asking Hampus and Rickard if they’d like to move in with him.</p><p>They freeze.</p><p>“Uh,” says Rickard.</p><p>Hampus tries, “We- I thought there was someone…”</p><p>“Isn’t Manse looking for places to live?” Rickard interjects, then grabs Hampus by the hand and very nearly runs out of the locker room, towing him along behind.</p><p>Jakob isn’t really sure which thing has him more off-balance, the hand-holding or the mention of Manse. (It’s Manse. It’s always Manse.)</p><p>Actually, Rickard turns out to be correct - Manse is looking for places to live, sick of his hotel room and confident he'll stick with the team.</p><p>So maybe Jakob ends up inviting the man who makes him yearn for home to live in his house. What could possibly go wrong with that?</p><p>--</p><p>Jakob feels like a lovesick fool at pretty much all times now. It's bad enough that Manse is existing in the same space, never mind that he keeps doing thoughtful things like making breakfast and offering to carpool. Even just hanging out, entertaining each other with games or simple conversation - it's all the lights and sounds of home that he's been missing all this time.</p><p>He was an idiot to think he wouldn't grow attached, under the circumstances. </p><p>It might have been years before he would have had the courage to day anything, the confidence in his own feelings to admit that they're true, except that things come to a head just a couple months in, when they're home for Christmas break.</p><p>Manse is hanging around in the kitchen, wearing only a pair of sweatpants and a vague look that matches his tuneless humming. He looks lost in thought, so much so that he doesn't notice Jakob staring at him. And Jakob really stares. It would be a waste not to, after all, with such a wonderful opportunity in front of him. </p><p>Of course, he's then so lost in thought himself that he doesn't notice when Manse stops humming.</p><p>And catches Jakob staring.</p><p>Right at him.</p><p>Oh dear.</p><p>But Manse only smiles. "Coffee?" he asks, as though he's just tired, as though that's the perfect explanation for Jakob downright ogling this man in his - their - own home.</p><p>"Uh, sure," says Jakob, in self-preservation. </p><p>"I've actually been meaning to ask you something," Manse says, retrieving a cup from the top shelf and pouring the remains of the nearly-empty pot into it.</p><p>"You… have?" replies Jakob, confusedly sipping his coffee. It's warmer than he expected, and he smiles despite his complete insecurity in the conversation. </p><p>"I have," Manse confirms. "It's obviously fine if you say no, but I thought maybe you'd be interested in, you know, dating?" He flushes. "Dating me, I mean."</p><p>And Jakob feels more than a little flush himself, smiling even harder as he walks over to Manse and sets his coffee cup down. "I'd like that," he says, taking Manse's hand between his own.</p><p>Manse leans in and kisses the tip of his nose, and Jakob suddenly feels more like home than he has in a long time. He kisses Manse's chin in return, and they both smile.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>- Title from "Bro Hymn" by Pennywise, which has been the Ducks' goal song for a very long time.<br/>- There's a reason this took so long to write and it's that I don't even know what writing is anymore?<br/>- I really want to finish this by the end of this season so I don't keep having to come up with new ideas tbh. Will I? No.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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